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Entertainment January 12, 2017
Neil Patrick Harris, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlize Theron, Courteney Cox, Rooney Mara, Zoe SaldanaNeil Patrick Harris looks unrecognizable in his shock transformation into eccentric villain Count Olaf for Netflix’s newest show, “A Series of Unfortunate Events.”
With a receding hairline, thick, jarring eyebrows, a pointy nose and grey hair styled suspiciously like devil horns the actor’s scary appearance in the series streaming from Friday the 13th of January is miles away from his friendly public persona.
But it isn’t just men like NPH who totally transform for roles. ENTITY looks at five actresses who also became unrecognizable with a bit of Hollywood makeup magic.
While shooting “First Class” it took eight hours, six women and a lot of blue paint to transform Lawrence into mutant Mystique.
For subsequent films, Lawrence sported a body suit and was painted from the neck up, cutting the process down to three hours.
She explained the transformation process during an appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” quipping, “I know that everyone feels sorry for me, but it’s so much fun. It’s like a sleepover, except I’m naked and getting painted.”
Theron masked her face with makeup and prosthetics to portray former prostitute and serial killer Aileen Wuornos in “Monster.” The star also gained weight for the role, which earned her a Best Actress Oscar in 2004.
Theron seemed to have enjoyed the three-month lead-up to the role, saying, “It wasn’t that hard. I just didn’t say ‘no’ to Krispy Kreme doughnuts or anything that was full of cream.” Theron added, “I also gave up exercising,” reported ScreenCrush.
“Fat Monica” was an ongoing joke on beloved NBC comedy “Friends,” which ran from 1994-2004. The character was a more buxom, younger version of Cox’s character Monica Geller, and was used in flashbacks.
Though it was a long-running joke on the show, “Fat Monica” appeared on just four episodes, the most famous of which was arguably season two’s “The One with the Prom Video” in 1996.
The slim actress sported a fat suit for the flashback scenes, which had her looking so different that on the first occasion that she wore it, co-star Matthew Perry reportedly walked right past, unable to recognize her.
Mara went through a particularly shocking transformation to portray hard-edged computer hacker Lisbeth Salander for the film adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s best-selling novel.
She chopped off her wavy brown hair, dying it pitch black, shaved her eyebrows, and pierced her nipple, nose and brow.
She told Fox411 that she found the transformation a bit shocking at first. “The eyebrows changed the way I looked the most, but I would say it freaked me out for maybe two minutes then I was fine,” Rooney revealed.
Saldana has undergone transformations for a host of roles, including “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Nina” (2016) and “Avatar” (2009).
But “Guardians” has become her most famous role and that film’s makeup designer revealed that it took two to three hours every day to turn Saldana into deadly assassin Gamora, reported Business Insider.
Saldana, who reprises the role in this summer’s sequel, often documents the transformation on social media, sharing a spread of “50 shades of green” paint last February.
These five women are so dedicated to their craft that they dedicated an unfathomable amount of hours each day to transforming into such memorable characters.
While Neil Patrick Harris is getting lots of acclaim for doing the same, these women did it first.
READ MORE: Neil Patrick Harris Is Unrecognizable in Netflix’s ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ Trailer
